Who and what are the most important people and things in your life? Your family? Your faith? Your work? Your business? What matters most? It’s a question to ponder. Without a clear-eyed look, without definite thought, foresight, and planning, we tend to run through our days and don’t necessarily give time to the people and things that matter most to us. It’s so easy to do. We have things we have to do. We all have to work and earn a living. We have the more mundane tasks such as laundry and housecleaning that must be done. Somehow, after these things get done, often our family, our dreams, and our faith get the leftovers.

But nobody comes to the end of their life wishing they’d spent more time doing laundry. Yes, it needs to be done, but it’s not the most important thing. You have opportunity to see an old friend or a family member you don’t often see and….. We do it if we can make it fit into our already full and overflowing schedules. Some of us aspire to improve ourselves or to participate in creative pursuits (writing, painting, learning an instrument, etc.) These things don’t happen without meticulous forethought, insight, and planning. Work is important and we need to honor our commitments to employers. But we also need to find a way to honor our families, our faith, and our dreams.

The older I get, the more I realize the truth of this statement: You can always earn more money, but you can’t always earn more time. When a loved one is dying, you either regretfully realize the things you wish you’d done or you gratefully acknowledge that while you were imperfect, your loved one knew you loved and cared for them. How? You spent time with them, you talked with them and listened, really listened, gave something of yourself, your life, and time to them. But that doesn’t happen by accident. It comes from prioritizing, planning, and letting go of that which is robbing your time.

And there are time thieves: the long lines at the store, the incessant pull of social media, the internet, TV, sports, and entertainment….. And we end up watching others live a fake existence instead of actually living our own lives in reality. The work will always be there and so will the housekeeping. Plan time for all of it, but don’t allow it to rule your time. Be in charge of your life. You’re the boss of your free time. How are you spending it? Is it spent productively or wasted scrolling social media network?
And why do we spend so much time on social media? It is neither good nor bad in itself. It can be a tremendous tool to bring people together. But much of the time it pulls people apart with constant arguing over political issues or things that really don’t matter. Why do I feel I need to “keep up with” some friend I knew 30 years ago who I haven’t talked with in years. “Oh look, they have a perfect family/ house/ car/ job/ business….” Their life is not perfect. They only post the great stuff. You don’t see the hard times, the cleaning up vomit after a toddler, the exchange of thousands of hours of time to purchase a vehicle just to bolster their ego for social capital.

I know I’m sounding pretty cynical. But I am realizing, I want to spend my time enjoying life, not constantly working. I want to spend my time engaged in activities that are fruitful both to me and the people God puts in my path.

But it all comes from a deep cleaning: a reordering of my time and priorities: an eliminating of activities that don’t bring life to me so I can focus in areas I want to be involved in. The question is: Do I have the courage to do it? Am I brave enough to say no to what no longer serves me and endure the social discomfort of disappointing less important people so the most important things: my faith, family, and future dreams can be prioritized and placed in their proper place in my life? Because I know some people are going to be disappointed. But some people will be thrilled.

What about you? Do you have the courage to deep clean your life and time to focus on what truly matters most?